Calgary - Legoland

Calgary is way prettier than I realized. We’re here visiting Lisa and Gord and their son Myles. This stop on the tour has been hotly anticipated by Sidney as Myles has a shared passion for Star Wars, is the same age and has an unsurpassed Lego collection – because, as Myles says, ‘some of it was my brother Addison’s Lego, who died from cancer.’ Sad but true.

Gord, Lisa and I went to Queen’s as undergraduates. There, Gord and I worked on a campus paper – now he makes his living as a writer. A few years later, Lisa helped me get a job organizing workshops and conferences that would help immigrant communities access transit and bikes in Toronto. She's one of the most effective promoters and coordinators of community economic development and micro-finance I know. We've been friends a long time.

The day after we arrived, we had a marathon Lego session, and then headed to the Calgary Stampede. I was a tad nervous because we decided to go by bike, pulling Sidney on the back of a Trail-a-bike attachment. Initially he refused, but once he heard that it was ‘impossible’ to flal off, he agreed. As soon as he got on he started ‘yahoo-ing!’ as we rocketed  alongside the Elbow River, through downtown Calgary and to Stampede. 

Mac had been visiting a friend and I waited for him at the entrance to the Stampede grounds, getting irritated by the way that only first nations people and white punk kids were getting their bags searched. When Mac arrived, he almost insisted that we be searched too.

Anyhoo, we entered Stampede and went to the Indian Village for a bit. According to Gord, this part of the Stampede is a bit contested. Some native folks avoid it. There are teepees for different nations on display and the people representing different nations get paid to live there which seems a tad voyeuristic. On either side of the dancing area there is a teepee for a different police force. Still, there are full traditional dance competitions, many drummers and some aspects of a traditional pow wow. Definitely lots of First Nations kids attend.  After a time of Myles and Sidney rolling down the hill, while I watched the dancing, we headed on to the rest of the Stampede. There we saw an impressive event called ‘steer’ in which a horse rider tries to direct a cow to move in a very particular way. And then it was on to the rides, the candy apples, and all that. The Stampede is pretty fun. People really do dress up in cowboy hats. As did we. I swear I’ll post photos later.